Immortal Dead

Strangers in Need

Capra and I spent the next couple of days travelling down dirt roads through dense forests, and as we got deeper, it was as if the land had started to rot. What was not long ago, a densely populated forest with lively flora, now had become a swamp full of death. Everywhere we looked was void of life. The trees, bushes, wildlife, everything. The air was dense, and smelled appropriate to it's surroundings. It was a slog to get through, and it felt like we were getting nowhere. Something about this place weighed heavily on me, I wanted nothing more than to get out as soon as possible, but who knew how much further it would be before we saw any life again. 

It was starting to get dark now, and neither of us had rested much today. Although that was mainly on me simply wanting not to linger any longer than necessary. A faint sign of hope was that the once dirth road, had slowly become a crumbled old stone road. At the very least, it now seemed possible there could be some kind of shelter somewhere. We were losing daylight quickly, and if we didn't find somewhere safe to camp, we ran the risk of collapsing out of exhaustion in the middle of nowhere. But like things couldn't get much worse, Capra tapped my shoulder. "Stop for a second, do you hear that?" She asked in a hushed tone. I stopped and listened. For a while, all I could hear was our heavy breathing, and a faint breeze whistling in our ears. It was faint, but I could hear something far away. It sounded like some kind of growling. I turned to Capra and whispered "It sounds far, but we need to get somewhere safe, now." 

We pushed forward, but we were starting to struggle. I could feel my eyelids getting heavy. While the noises we heard remained far, we couldn't seem to escape it. But as we turned off the path, I could see a faint light up ahead. I couldn't make out what it was, my brain wasn't working at full capacity anymore. My feet started to drag against the stone. But what was worse was that dreaded noise. I could hear it getting louder. "Capra.." I said, but before I could even finish, she quickly responded "I know, c'mon we need to keep going." It was nearly pitch black, I was using all my willpower to keep my eyes open and my legs moving forward. After a few moments I heard a loud thump behind me, followed by a faint groan. Capra had tripped, and as I knelt down next to her to help her up, it was too late. The growling was loud, and it was surrounding us. I couldn't see anything, but I knew something was there. I turned towards the direction of the light, which oddly enough seemed closer then just a moment ago. 

I weakly reached out in a random direction and tried to summon some kind of flame, anything. But no matter how much I tried, I was drained. Beyond the loud growls circling us, a loud thumping noise was starting to overtake them. I looked beyond the darkness and could see a horse sprinting in our direction, with a lone passenger riding atop it's back. The stranger quickly lept off their horse, tossed their lantern to the ground, causing the glass to shatter into thousands of sharp, tiny pieces. The once tiny flame now freed of it's glass prison had started to spread, granting us sight of what surrounded us. A pack of what seemed like were once dogs, now more like rotted corpses somehow brought to life. 

The man unsheathed his heavy axe and stood in front of us. The flame had spread and latched onto one of the creatures legs, causing it to let out a bloodcurdling screech. Two of the creatures lept in our direction, one of them met the mans fist directly in its face, while the other had a quick introduction with the sharp axe that had been swung in it's direction. While one had met it's demise, the other had only been temporarily stunned, quickly charging the stranger, who never moved an inch away from us. He stood still, readying his weapon overhead, only to slam down into the monsters spine. Another deafeningly loud screech violated our ears. More beasts yet remained, but seemed to have been startled off, quickly turning and running off into the pitch black swamp. Our mysterious savior let out a laugh, and returned his weapon to his belt. But by now, I couldn't hold my consciousness any longer. I felt my eyes close as the dark figure knelt down to us, and I quickly hit the ground.